The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-03-25
EARS AND EARRINGS.
~. d. 1OLK,
w. A. MAY,
w. I. SCOTT.


A pretty ear is a great beauty and
finds many enthusiastic admirers. We
could name many a noted man first at
tracted to the girl he loved and mar
ried by her pretty ear; and we have
even heard some men say: 1.-THE first
thing see when l am in company of
ladies is the ear We need not tell
you that such men, and all indeed who
admire pretty ears. abhor earrings.
jewelers. need not frown; for if fewer
earrings were sold, more fingerrings,
lockets brooches, etc, would be sold,
and they would not be the losers if ear
rings disappeared from fashion to-mOr-
row. Besides, our aim is to preserve
beauty when possible, and earrings de-
strOy it by frightening the ear and de-
strOying the symmetrical outline. We
say nothing of the barbarity of the GUS
tom of wearing earrings. You might
as well wear rings in your nose as in
your ears. We merely say that. setting
the barbarOus custom aside, earrings
lengthen the ear and spoil its shape
and symmetry. Therefore, if you
would preserve your ear small and
pretty, as nature makes it, never wear
an earring.
On the other hand, if your ears are
-
for You would only then attract atten-
tentiOn to their ugliness. Hide them as
much as you can by light waves or
curls of hair allowed to fall over the
ears as if by accident, but do not in
vite attention to them. Our models of
beauty, tho ancient Greeks, did not
wear earrings, or rarely did so. EgyP-
tians and Asiatics were and still are
fond of all kinds of jewelry, and they
wore huge earrings very often which
weighed down the ears to tremendous
length.
Roman women also were partial to
| earrings, as they were to all other Jew
elry. As Ovid tells us: "Their dresses
were heavy brocades, their fingers were
| covered with precious stones, and ORR
| entail pearls hung on their necks and
ears" They also wore bracelets, anu
lets, and, according to Martial, rings
on their toes, which were visible when
| they wore sandals. This fashion, in
deed, was initiated by the Countess Cas-
tellani at fancy dress ball at the Tuil-
leries during the last Empire. The
| Countess Castellani was considered
the most beautiful woman at that Court
of Beauties She was an Italian, with
an Italian skin and golden hair, some
thing like the new American beauty,
Miss Chamberlain, who is spoken of as
a gypsy with golden hair.
To return to the subject of earrings,
the Roman women wore as many as
three, and sometimes four, large pearls
on each ear. This style of earring was
called Crotalia; and the pearls clanked
! together like so many bells, which was
| fiattcriug to their vanity. The funniest
thing was that they even put earrings
/ on the hsh in their aquariums, just TO
| see their effect in the water. Francis
/ the First of France initiated this absurd
| ity, and had earrings put to the famous
carp of FOntainebleau.
Who has not heard of CleOpatra's fap
NOUS pearl earrings, which cost two
millions of francs each, and one Of
| which she melted in her cup and drank
| it to AnthOny's health? She would have
done the same thing with the second
earring If she had not been prevented.
This earring afterwards passed into
! Agrippa's hands, and he had it cut in
two to make two earrings, with which
to adorn the ears of the statue of Venus
in the Pantheon of Rome.
Caesar also once paid a million Of
francs for n pearl, which he gave to
the mother of Brutus, and he had so
/ great y NencTaLlOn IoE pearls lIldb IN
his laws against cclibacy he forbade
! them TO be worn bv women who had
cot a husband, or children. or any one
| who was under 10 years of age. Now,
however, they arc the favOrite ornaments
for young girls, and looked upon as
emblCms of innocence and purity. But
a string of pearls round the neck alone
should be worn by young girls, and not
pearls in the ears.
Italians and other southern people
full of old fashioned superstitions have
their children's ears bored almost as
soon as they are born, under the idea
that this hole in the ear preserves the
! eyes in good sight and strength. We
NAV here add that we know young wO-
men of twenty with failing sight, al
though they wear earrings, and others
of past" thirty who never have worn
an earring and have their sight as
sound and clear as child's. Earrings,
therefore, do not. invariably protect the
ewes from weakness or disease, though
thew sometimes have beneficial effect.
We hope that none of our readers viii
wear them if they have pretty ears,
and an ugly ear cannot be too timid
and retiring.
But putting the question of beauty on
one side, there are some women with
very thin, hollow cheeks, TO whom
rather long earrings are becoming,
They seem to I'LL mp a vacuum, and II
earrincrs ara ~S1ftabla IL ia in such